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Paramount account to DMB&B

Published on November 21, 1996.

Paramount Pictures has moved its network broadcast and cable TV buying, as well as its syndicated TV buying, to D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles' TeleVest unit from WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, Advertising Age has learned.

Paramount, a division of Viacom, spent about $62 million on those media last year, according to Competitive Media Reports. O&M is expected to retain spot TV buying. Through June, Paramount spent about $25 million on network and syndication, and approximately $21 million in spot, according to CMR.

TeleVest is also getting Paramount Home Video for network broadcast and cable TV buying and syndication. That account, with billings under $1 million, has been at media independent Focus Media, Los Angeles.

TeleVest also does the network buying for Procter & Gamble Co. The media unit's executives developed a close relationship with Paramount when TeleVest brokered a deal last year between the studio and the package-goods giant. In that alliance, P&G and Paramount develop TV shows.

For TeleVest, the nation's biggest buyer of network TV time just got bigger. TeleVest bought $1.2 billion worth of time on the broadcast networks last year, Advertising Age estimates. O&M was ranked No. 6, buying $767 million of network time.

TeleVest is the second largest buyer of syndicated TV time, and the eighth largest spender on the national cable TV networks.